


Indifferent Rumors

by venefica_aura (crankyoldman)



Series: Psychobabble [11]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Break Up, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-28
Updated: 2009-11-28
Packaged: 2017-10-03 22:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crankyoldman/pseuds/venefica_aura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The rumor was that they hated each other. The truth was something else entirely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Indifferent Rumors

Rumors were the sorts of things that could make or break an organization.

 

It was no surprise that Shinra seemed to produce some of the very best rumors. The mailroom alone seemed to contain volumes of false history and hearsay. On the surface, so much falsity was expected to be damaging, but reality was far worse. Reality was the type of thing better tossed in a dumpster and lit on fire.

 

Veld kept good track of the rumors about him. How he'd ripped through some gang that was exaggerated to army proportions. How he had shot a rookie once for looking at him strangely. His favorite involved a plot to assassinate the current Chief. There were hookers involved in that one, somehow.

 

The truth was, he lost his temper sometimes.

 

"It's the weekend, aren't you off to perpetuate your playboy reputation?"

 

Valentine's rumors were almost entirely about his sex life. Ironic, considering that out of the two of them, Valentine was probably more violent. People had a tendency to switch their stories about them--Veld was always portrayed as the frightening one, while Valentine was sauve and whatever else women seemed to like these days. Further irony was that it actually meant Veld got hit on more these days, and since he wasn't looking for it, Valentine usually had to point it out to him.

 

"That's not funny, you know." Something was up with the kid, though.

 

"You have to admit it's a _little_ funny."

 

He flipped open a folder--he hadn't noticed it before. Being a Leader meant that all sorts of nasty orders and paperwork seemed to sneak onto his desk. Or maybe the paperwork that was already there kept breeding. It was hard to tell sometimes. This particular order said something about a need for a bodyguard--easy fieldwork. It was tempting.

 

Valentine leaned against Veld's desk. "Makes it damned hard for a woman to take me seriously."

 

He stopped flipping through pages. No, he hadn't heard that right. "For what end would you need a woman to take you seriously?"

 

No, no, it wasn't... Valentine was at a point in his career that he didn't need to get mixed up in anything frivilous. While the kid wasn't really as young as he sounded sometimes, he still didn't understand certain things properly. He'd admitted once that he didn't have the first clue about how to ask a girl out--Veld had shown him how to do that. It had only been halfway successful, but certainly led to an interesting night at the bar.

 

Valentine wasn't even a sixteenth the slut everyone seemed to think he was. Job-related encounters excluded. That was business.

 

The kid shrugged. "Just someone I've been talking to." And then he smirked. "Worried?"

 

It was just a bait. Veld waved it off. "God forbid I'd actually get to sleep at a decent hour of night. Maybe you should get yourself a girlfriend."

 

This was the game they played. The rumor was that they hated each other so much that they couldn't go for a day without exploding at each other. It was only half true. Veld fought with Valentine because he could handle it, because he was talented but a piss poor worker sometimes. Valentine _needed_ someone to knock him down a peg or two. Almost as much as Veld needed--

 

No, Veld didn't really need anything.

 

Of course, since Veld hadn't taken Valentine's bait and had responded with a challenge, his office was likely to get a little messy. "What would you need sleep for?"

 

Cue tie grabbing. Cue the fast clearing of the desk. Veld was going to make him put every piece of paper back one at a time so help--

 

"You really should just give me a key already. Your office is getting boring."

 

Maybe he flinched. Just a little. "I'll think about it."

 

\---

 

Everyone knew that Dr. Crescent was beautiful. A flurry of rumors as varied as her inappropriate outfits seemed to follow her everywhere. He normally stayed away from science department gossip, as it wasn't a particularly good gauge for anything he bothered with. But he'd heard one that almost vibrated along that dangerous realm of truth.

 

"You must be Veld."

 

And there was the siren herself, long legs displayed openly and toned by her perpetual heels. If he didn't already know that she was intelligent and meant to be respected, he would have written her off as just another modern pretty girl. Their sexuality was as blatant as the slum's neon signs. He missed the days when women dressed appropriately and slowly got under a man's skin.

 

What was he thinking, women like that didn't exist anymore. It wasn't fashionable.

 

"Dr. Crescent, I presume?" No, that rumor had to be false. Valentine was cocky and foolish, but he wasn't _stupid_.

 

"Your reputation precedes you. I can't believe how organized your office is."

 

His pen dug a little harder into the paper he was writing on. "Not to sound terse, but I'm a busy man, did you have something specific you wanted to talk about?"

 

Better to cut down on the chit-chat.

 

"Yes, I sent a request for a bodyguard a while back? You have probably looked at it already. I wanted to make a suggestion."

 

"Oh?" He'd hoped that the note on the back was just a momentary hallucination. Valentine's negligent hot shot of a father had been dead for some time now. He didn't have a right to ask pretty young assistants turned into doctors of their own to look after what he'd been too ambitious to do himself. So that note simply found its way into the garbage.

 

Valentine didn't need to be distracted by that kind of thing anyway. I would probably have just pissed him off.

 

"I was wondering if Vincent Valentine was free for the job."

 

Oh, the poor deluded girl. Didn't she know that Grimoire was only charming when he wanted something? Veld had been rather young when the man was still alive, and he knew that.

 

"I would have to check some schedules." He had to practically swallow the urge to just say 'no' and send her and her apparent baggage on her way.

 

But Tally had let him make a lot of stupid choices and damned if that woman didn't make up a fair bit of his conscience. Valentine probably would stay anyway. Not like he--it was all silly.

 

She almost seemed awkward around him now, moving from one heel to the other--back and forth. "Well, thank you."

 

"Anytime."

 

\---

 

He shouldn't have waited until they were off duty and sitting at the bar of one of his favorite haunts. He should have sat Valentine in his office and told him he'd simply been requested for a bodyguard position. Because it really wasn't personal at all.

 

"Dr. Crescent came by and asked if you could bodyguard her." And there were certainly better ways to word that.

 

"She did?"

 

"So you're staying, right?"

 

Veld didn't know why he thought drinking was a good idea at this point. His words were careless under the influence. There was some sad sap jazz song in the air too, which always made him just a little too comfortable.

 

Valentine looked at him. "Do you want me to?"

 

He gulped down a little more of his drink. "You can do what you want."

 

The kid shook his head. "That's not what I asked. I asked if you wanted me to stay."

 

Veld frowned. "Why should that matter?"

 

"Nevermind."

 

\---

 

The rumor was that Veld Dragoon and Vincent Valentine finally had it. That they couldn't stand each other anymore. Because Veld was scary and a perfectionist, he was the one to stay. Valentine had been spending some of his time off in the company of Dr. Lucrecia Crescent anyway. It made sense that he left with her.

 

What the rumors left out, though, was that there had only been two men at the train station. The scientists had other ways of getting to Nibelheim. Hearsay left out the fact that there was no yelling, no _banishment_.

 

"I hear it's cold out there."

 

"Yes. I brought a coat."

 

"I wasn't going to get on your case about it."

 

Really, the truth was, the arguing was a good sign. People always mistook the opposite of love to be hate.

 

"Train's here."

 

The opposite was something much more subtle.

 

"Looks like it is. Goodbye, Valentine."

 

The opposite was indifference.

 

"Goodbye, Veld."


End file.
